A Conceptual Model for Designing Interdisciplinary Training Open to the Contemporary Educational Context

Theoretical models in general, besides simplified schematic representations of studied phenomena, systems, or processes, are also a means for studying their essence as elements of reality. In this sense, general models of pedagogical interaction are reviewed, particularly as objects of study and design, found in the introductory course for undergraduates in the vocational field of Pedagogy. An author’s conceptual model is presented here, which includes, as systemic elements of the pedagogical phenomenon in focus, the educational contexts namely – the institutional, the social, and the applicatory ones – that constitute objects of study and design for courses with interdisciplinary content, such as civic education, for example. The thesis is that in order to design for open and real-life-oriented learning, the given characteristics of these three contexts should be explored and operationalized, from which realistic and close-to-learners situations and resources for instruction can be derived. The model was developed and piloted within an applied research project (2015–2018), whose intervention was entrepreneurship training for sustainable development with a train-of-trainers module.